Tuesday, 8 May 2012

Commémoration du 8 mai 1945 - Commemoration of the May 8, 1945

These days, if you open your google homepage Google France, you can see a small cornflower-bluepurple under the google logo as shown above. It was in Commemoration of the May 8, 1945.

May 8, 1945 is the date of two historical events:

1. The Allied victory over Nazi Germany and the end of World War II in Europe marked by the announcement of the surrender of Germany. This day is called by the English speakers 'VE Day (in)' for Victory in Europe Day. The Soviets, then the Russians and their allies Oriental center, commemorating the surrender on May 9, when it was signed on May 7 at Reims1 but announced that on May 8, a new signature was made on May 8 in Berlin 23 h 01, locale2 hours.

2. The Sétif massacre in Algeria.
May 8, 1945 is also the starting date of the massacres of Setif, Guelma and Kherrata, which are the bloody repression of nationalist riots that occurred in 1945 in the department of Constantine in Algeria during the French colonial period. The riots were to reclaim the country's independence and the liberation of the Algerian People's Party leader (PPP) Messali Hajj.

To celebrate the end of hostilities and the Allied victory over the Axis forces, parades are held on May 8, including in Algeria, where French department. Algerian nationalist parties, taking advantage of the hearing given to this particular day, decided to recall their claims by patriotic demonstrations.

But, in Setif, a police officer shoots a young Algerian Algerian flag and holding the kill, triggering riots. There will be among the Europeans over a hundred dead and many wounded.

The number of Aboriginal victims made ​​in retaliation remains debatable. The French authorities at that time settled the number of fatalities in 1165, a U.S. intelligence report in Algiers in 1945 noted 17,000 dead and 20,000 wounded, the Algerian government advance the number of 45,000 dead, while the following historians vary in number from 8000 (Ageron Charles Robert, Charles-Andre Julien) to "thousands dead" 6.

Commemorated each year in Algeria, the date "was a reference point and dress rehearsal for the victorious insurrection of 1954.

May 8 was declared a national holiday in France to commemorate March 20, 1953. President Charles de Gaulle removes the character of a holiday that day by the Decree of April 11, 1959

To get into a logic of reconciliation with Germany, President Giscard d'Estaing also removes the commemoration of the Allied victory in 1945.

It was at the request of President Francois Mitterrand that this commemoration and this holiday will be restored, by the Act of September 23, 1981